Great East Butcher Co. embraces community

STRATHAM — After opening its doors for the first time last month, Great East Butcher Co. is focused on taking care of the needs of the Seacoast community.

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By Jack Gilman

seacoastonline.com

By Jack Gilman

Posted Aug. 1, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Jack Gilman

Posted Aug. 1, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

STRATHAM — After opening its doors for the first time last month, Great East Butcher Co. is focused on taking care of the needs of the Seacoast community.

"If you take care of the community, the community will take care of you," said store Marketing Director Chris Carragher. "We want to become part of the community."

Located on Portsmouth Avenue, Great East Butcher Co. offers not only a full-service butcher experience, but a wide selection of wine and craft beers, a full sandwich shop, as well as any other ingredients one would need for a good meal.

"We want to become a destination in the community that you need for a great meal," Carragher said. "Prices are fair, and we offer everything to help prepare our meat products."

Being community oriented is something that the new store has made a priority since opening, something that they have taken to a whole new level. The employees of Great East Butcher have been delivering free lunch to different businesses in the area to help get connected to community members, including Market Basket just across the street.

The company then posts the pictures from their surprise delivery on their Facebook page to share their stories.

Though the store will soon be opening a new location in Scarborough, Maine, Carragher said that will be it for locations, for now.

"The focus is to do one thing and do it well," Carragher said. "We want to make what we have the best it can be."

Great East Butcher Co. offers a variety of meat, chicken and fish products inside the newly renovated space, including their very own in-house cured bacon. Grass-fed beef and nitrate-free products are also being offered to match the wants of their costumers.

"We are working with a lot of local vendors," Carragher said. "We hope to have new products coming in every week."

While the Great East Butcher Co. occupies the old Meat House location, there is no affiliation between the two companies, Carragher stressed.

"We are independently owned and operated," he said. "It's hard to show people that we are offering more, but we hope that they come in and see all the products we have available."

While the store has made community involvement a strong priority, they also believe their products are some of the best, especially their sandwiches.

"The Jamaican Jerk sandwich is the best," said Kevin Scherman, a store employee. "All of them are good and very unique. The Reuben is also fantastic, who doesn't love a good Reuben?"

Carragher hopes the shop will become a destination, whether it be to get lunch or pick up ingredients for a great dinner.

"The sandwich business has picked up for us," Carragher said. "We encourage people to come in, get something good to eat, and pick up dinner while you're at it."